Friday, March 2, 2012

Baby-led weaning

Eric comes in shortly after Maia and I have settled down for
Maia's bedtime feeding. She immediately squirms onto her back to grin up at
Eric and reach one stubby arm toward him. "Hi, baby. Now pay attention to
mama," he tells her. She turns toward me, and then immediately back to
him, so he says, "Okay, okay, I'm going," and leaves.

We nurse for a few minutes on that side, the right, but she gets restless, so
we switch to the left. After a couple of minutes, she starts squirming again.
She pushes herself up on her hands and knees. She sees the bottle from her last
afternoon feeding, still holding a couple of ounces, on the table beside us.
She reaches and grabs it. She twists around until she's sitting, then topples
backward onto my right arm. She puts the bottle to her mouth and starts to
drink, snuggled happily against me.

I call for Eric. When he appears in the doorway, she smiles
and raises the bottle in her fist in a triumphant salute.